Summary: Ron can't explain why, but spending time with Hermione always makes him feel better. [GOB missing moment. RHr.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Ron awoke that morning painfully early - quite literally painfully, as the apparent cause for this was a dull thud in his forehead. Dull, but persistent. He tried putting much of his very best effort to turn to his side and fall back asleep, but was unable to ignore his throbbing head and ended up reluctantly getting to his feet.
He rubbed his eyes, yawning sleepily. Now that Ron was awake, he could not have imagined being able to sleep through Neville's snores, and looked around enviously at the other Gryffindor fourth year boys, their sleep unplagued by mysterious head pain. Ron reached for yesterday's clothes, which had been thrown unceremoniously at the foot of his bed the night before, and pulled them on, barely aware of what he was doing. He stumbled out of the room with the vague intention of going to the hospital wing.
He reached the common room to find a small number of Gryffindors - all girls, he noticed - residing there, sitting in pyjamas and drinking mugs of hot chocolate as they discussed the ever-interesting subject of gossip. A familiar girl sat on one of the fatter sofas, talking animatedly with her best friend and looking as though she had not paused for breath all night.
"Lavender," grunted Ron, still only half aware of what he was saying.
"Yes?" she asked rather sharply, looking thoroughly irritated by the interruption.
"Where's Hermione?"
She looked as though she wasn't going to answer - blank him for his uncourteous behaviour - but then thought better of it. "I don't know. She went down for breakfast an hour ago - I suspect she's in the library by now."
She finished the sentence with a cough that sounded much like a crudely disguised laugh. Parvati, sitting beside her, caught Lavender's eye and the two of them burst into silent giggles. Ron couldn't see what was funny and walked towards the portrait hole, neglecting to thank Lavender for this information.
She called after him indignantly, perhaps expecting some sort of praise, but he ignored her. Head pain was more important than stupid girls that laughed at anything, he decided.
Now with the more definite intention of visiting Hermione in the library, Ron quickened his pace and brushed a hand through his hair subconsciously. Had he been properly awake earlier, he would have realised that Hermione would be his first choice of person to find - for she was probably already adept at minor healing spells and was unlikely to belittle him for complaining about such a small thing. He could perhaps also convince her to tell him exactly who she was going to the Yule Ball with, as she had so carefully skirted around the topic whenever he had already asked and might not be so well prepared for the question this early in the morning. Ron walked on with a little more determination in his stride.
As he walked, he could not understand the number of students walking around the corridors. It was surely only just past the crack of dawn - Ron couldn't be bothered to check his watch - and the idea that people had willingly parted with their beds already was absurd, would have been laughable to him had he not been in pain. He expected nothing less from Hermione, her early morning holiday routine was to wake early, have breakfast and then go to the library for what she called "study purposes." Ron accepted Hermione was just weird like that, but surely other people had not heeded her example and done the same?
He reached the library feeling more appreciative of its closeness and his best friend's predictability than he ever had in his life. Hermione sat alone in a corner by a stack of books, absent mindedly chewing the end of her quill whilst scanning through one of the bigger volumes.
"'Mione," he said.
She looked up, and her eyes widened slightly - clearly she was surprised to see Ron up so early, and in the library of all places.
"Good morning," she said, and promptly went to move a pile of books off the chair beside her so that he could sit down, "it's a bit early for you, isn't it?"
"My head hurts," said Ron, pointing at his forehead unnecessarily. He was still rather groggy and his mind and mouth appeared to not want to cooperate with each other.
"You're not the first," replied Hermione as she turned back to her book, then looked up again. "Hold still."
Ron obeyed and watched Hermione work her wonders - in this case, a flick of her wand and an incantation he did not hear nor care enough to inquire about. The point was the pain eased and then was suddenly gone, and this meant jubilation.
"Hermione, you're a lifesaver," said Ron earnestly, now delighted.
"It's an easy spell," smiled Hermione, she paused for a moment - "you're not very literate this early in the morning, are you?"
Ron looked at her. Her form of teasing was probably the dullest kind imaginable.
"No," he said gruffly, "Hermione - who're you going to the ball with?"
She looked at him, scrutinising his every feature before saying, "it's this again, is it? I've already said, I'm not telling."
"But-"
"I'm not telling," said Hermione firmly, and Ron knew to give up while she was still being civil, "let's change the subject."
"Fine," said Ron, "then what do you do in here this early in the morning?"
"Early?" repeated Hermione, sounding surprised, "it's nearly eight am, most people are awake by now. It's only you who sleeps in until noon."
"You know what I mean," yawned Ron, "here, in the library. Why?"
"I've been researching the history of elf misjustices in wizarding courts," she replied, "you wouldn't believe how many-"
She stopped, apparently aware of Ron's complete disinterest. He rolled his eyes, but she seemed to take his expression another way and turned slightly pink.
"And, oh, all right. I've started revising for the exams," she said very quickly, looking away, "I just thought it'd be good to get a start on things and we never seem to have enough time during term, and now is ideal, because we haven't been set much homework over Christmas and the library is free..."
She looked at him resolutely, as though daring him to insult her.
"If it means you're going to use this knowledge to help lesser beings in pain, then it sounds good to me," he said, and then yawned again.
Hermione rolled her eyes, but Ron did not catch it. He got up.
"Going somewhere?" she asked after him.
"Yeah," replied Ron, "back to bed."
He thought he heard her laugh as he walked back to Gryffindor tower, inexplicably happier than he'd felt since the Christmas holiday had began.